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We have reached a tipping point. For years, we have understood that cyber security breaches pose risks to our privacy, finances and even our safety; and we have taken first steps to defend ourselves. But time is not on our side. The threat from cyber attacks has moved faster than us.

Events of recent months reveal what is now at stake: the future health of democracy itself. We cannot say we were not warned. The hack on Yahoo! back in 2013 compromised as many as a billion accounts, while hackers taking remote control of a Jeep Cherokee driving at 70mph in 2015 revealed additional vulnerabilities.

More recently, attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and the NHS in 2017 showed sometimes the bad...